How Medium’s Curation, Distribution and Paywall Systems Work for Writers

We don’t charge for hosting, we never put ads on your content or share your data, and we will only put your story behind the Medium paywall if you choose to take advantage of Medium distribution beyond your followers.... We recommend stories to millions of Medium readers every day on our personalized home page, in our email digests, and in our mobile apps. Every one ... reviewed and approved by a curator....
In time, most stories we recommend to readers will be part of Medium’s paywall... We will give you... a link you can share with an unlimited number of friends to let them bypass the metered paywall... if you join Medium’s Partner Program, you can earn money... you can choose to participate in this system, on a per-story basis...
Curators use our Curation Guidelines... do not take claps or other popularity signals into account — just the work itself... when a story is approved by a curator, it becomes eligible for more prominent featuring across site, apps, emails, social ...
Even when a story is “behind the paywall,” the vast majority of people can read it for free...